International Artists Workshop 2003 was held from 7th to 20th September at the Lunuganga Estate of the eminent architect Geoffrey Bawa located in  Bentota, Sri Lanka. 

Fourteen artists from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, UK and Sri Lanka participate in the Theertha International Artists Workshop 2003.

Amanda Heng (Singapore), Amitha Indirani (Sri Lanka), Asma Mundrawala (Pakistan), Barnaby King (UK),Janani Cooray (Sri Lanka), Kapila Palihawadana (Sri Lanka), Kandasamy Sithamparanathan (Sri Lanka), Kusal Nandana (Sri Lanka), Mella Jaarsma (Indonesia), Salahuddin Khan (Bangladesh), Sanath Kalubadana (Sri Lanka), Srinivasa Prasad B H (India), T Shanaathanan (Sri Lanka), T H Pushpa Kumara (Sri Lanka), Bandu Manamperi (Sri Lanka), Anura Krishantha (Sri Lanka) and two Sri Lankan Artist Groups Saranga Puppeteers' Group, Vayamba Sathsara (Jahuta) Performance Group participated in the 2003 Workshop.

Majority of the artists arrived a day prior to start of the workshop.  An event was organized (media day) for the press to meet the participating artist on 6^th September evening where a large gathering of the people consisting of members of the press, electronic media, artists, people representing galleries, members of diplomatic missions took part.  The event was hosted by the Sapumal Foundation (an art foundation/ art gallery) in their garden.

  Workshop started on 7^th September where artist Jagath Weerasinghe made an introduction to the workshop in the first day and a tour of the site was give to artists to familiarize with the environment. A trip to the local market was organized to give the artists a sense of material available locally for possible use.  The day to day   workshop proceedings included presentation of artists portfolios by each artist and discussions on topics generated from these presentations.  In addition, number of meetings took place initially where the idea of ‘collaboration’ was discussed.  Two workshop manager, As  workshop managers Bandu Manamperi and Anura Krishantha facilitated the artists. Workshop was coordinated by Anoli Perera and Bandu Manamperi.

During the workshop two traditional performing artists groups held performances. One was the Saranga Puppeteer group from Ambalangoda and the other was Wayamba Kavaya Theathre group who did a ‘Jahuta’ performance.  These performances were also attended by the Lunuganga villagers.

Two events were held at the end of the workshop. 

The Critical Dialogue Day (CD day) was held at Lunuganga on 20^th September where all the works were displayed on site and number of performances were held.  Theertha invited artists, art students, curators, art critics, and the general public to the CD day. The workshop events were opened to the local community too where they came to view the performances held during the workshop.

The Open Day was held at the VAFA gallery at Ethul Kotte.  The transportable artworks that brought to Colombo and re-installed and displayed at the VAFA gallery.  The others were represented through a series of photos and video film of the workshop screened on a multimedia projector.  The artists Janani Cooray and Kapila Palihawadana performed their work again at the Open Day.   A large audience attended the event.

Theertha workshop was sponsored by Hivos, Arts Network Asia and  Lunuganga Trust.